


Who Are We, to Predate Gods

by BakaBronze



Category: Assassin's Creed - All Media Types, Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Adventures, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Crossover, Low Chaos Corvo Attano, Not Beta Read, Pandyssia, Shroud of Eden, The Void, post Assassins Creed 3, post Dishonored 1, the apple of Eden
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-22
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-03-09 11:22:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21898276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BakaBronze/pseuds/BakaBronze
Summary: He can feel more than he can see it. The very void vibrates around him, telling him that something is waking. Something old, older, even, than him. The Outsider knows such things are not impossible, yet it is incredibly odd. He could not have known, obviously. He cannot know what predates his existence, it is beyond him.The Outsider watches empires rise and fall. Letting a being possible world-ending power rampage across the isles, however, may be against his moral compass.Or,Corvo and the Outsider take a fun little trip to Pandyssia to check out some funky happenings.
Comments: 14
Kudos: 63





	1. Chapter 1

The Outsider watches the fickle and temporary nature of humans. He sees how their great cities fall, how far they come, how much they lose to disease and greed. He ponders and watches silently, as he is praised and loathed. 

He can feel more than he can see it. The very void vibrates around him, telling him that something is waking. Something old, older, even, than him. The Outsider knows such things are not impossible, yet it is incredibly odd. He could not have known, obviously. He cannot know what predates his existence, it is beyond the him.

The Outsider watches empires fall. Letting a potential world-ending power rampage is, however, a little against his moral compass.

-0-

Corvo was finally settling down. Finally dealing with his own problems, grieving and working through the trauma of coldridge. Emily was safe, she was on the throne. He started her on basic combat lessons. How to break grabs, and work a knife. He would never let anything happen to his little girl again.

Being the royal protector, and the royal spymaster left Corvo little time to himself, but what little he had he used to pull himself back together. Emily needed a parent, even if he had to do it alone.

He went to bed feeling Optimistic that night. Emily gave him a drawing to add to his growing collection. It was of them on a stroll together through the gardens, Sokolov in the background painting something facing away from them. He smiled and accepted it gratefully, putting it on his desk to admire.

Emily had sat fairly still through all her lessons that day, and acted with proper poise. Until she was released into the gardens for lunch, that is. Corvo felt pride bloom in his chest to settle with the overwhelming parental love.

He settles under his sheets and closes his eyes, letting the bone-feel exhaustion take him.

-0-

Corvo wakes and immediately knows something is wrong. He knows this feeling. The feeling of the void.

Apparently, believing the Outsider would leave him alone once the curtains dropped was too hopeful. He hadn't been using his powers, and couldn't imagine the various jobs of running an empire held any interest to the all-knowing god.

Corvo sighs, and throws the warm duvet off, working on boots and throwing a coat over his night shirt. He can't be bothered to get fully dressed for a dream. Outside his room, there are stairs, predictably supported by absolutely nothing. The void always feels so empty despite the buzzing energy. It's like the Outsider only bothers to exist in and create physicality while he has a guest. Like once alone, he will disperse into nothing, melting intangibly with the empty around him. The more he thinks on it, the more likely it seems.

At the top of the flight, nothing sits. Yet, he knows the Outsider will appear once he gets to the platform. Theatrics, as always. This meeting must be of some significance, to hold it in Corvo's dreams. This had only happened once.

As anticipated, the Outsider appears when Corvo is in place. He looks as calm and cool as ever. Detached. Corvo finds he's starting to understand what that's like. It's weird, to sympathize with a god.

"Corvo, my dear," he greets, legs crossed, sitting on a ledge in front of him. "Your Emily is safe, and her role secured. You work in her shadow to preserve her light, the beloved Empress Emily, first of her name. Yet your work is incomplete."

Corvo levels him with an unimpressed stare, and he thinks he might see the corner of the god's mouth quirk. He frowns. Corvo had seen no indication of a threat to Emily, and severely doubts the Outsider would deign to inform him of one. No, this task will not directly benefit Corvo. 

"I need you to travel to Pandyssia."

Corvo blinked. People don't live when they go to Pandyssia. On top of that little concern, he finds himself in shock of the blatant request. The Outsider was not transparent about any matter, nor does he make requests.

"What for?" Corvo asks after reigning in his thoughts.

"Something...is happening," he begins, awfully vaguely. "Waking. Something old." And finishes, just the same.

For once in his life, the god appears lost for words. Like, despite his impossible age, he's never experienced anything like it before. Maybe he hasn't.

"And you need me for...?"

The Outsider looks at him as if he didn't expect the question. "Why would I not?" He tilts his head.

"You have thousands of followers that would jump at your word without question," Corvo crosses his arms.

The Outsider makes a face, as if the notion of lowering himself to talk to his own worshippers is offensive. Corvo has met some of them and, yeah, that's fair.

"I doubt Daud has an empire to run," he points out, rather indignantly.

"You, my dear, are simply being difficult."

He's right, but Corvo can't just leave Dunwall and his daughter for weeks on end.

"Emily has people to take care of her. She will be fine, I promise you. I would not let my interference affect your life, that would contradict my existence as a passive observer," at that, he stands, moving a foot closer, hands clasped behind his back.

Once again, Corvo has to wonder at this odd behaviour. Was this really so important?

"What's in Pandyssia, then? Other than plague, hostile creatures, poisonous animals, general death and insanity, and a whole lot of crazy people, that is."

"You will see once you get there, no?"

"...it's a big place." 

Corvo gets a nod. "Indeed. I will meet you there, then."

Apparently his inquiry was taken as affirmation and he wakes up in bed, sunlight streaming through the drapes.

"Damn it all," he mutters and dresses for the day. He really should have told him to find someone else. This is going to throw a massive wrench in his short-term plans.

Emily will be okay. He tells himself while heading out to breakfast.

Will the Outsider protect him though?

-0-

Corvo could not say he was happy to be out to sea again. He didn't mind the lack of luxury, but he did mind the lack of privacy grated. He supposed privacy was in fact a luxury for most people. He should be more used to it, given his past.

Corvo made himself scarce during the trip. What did the Outsider even mean by he'd meet him there? Surely, he wouldn't do any of the work himself. Imagining the god doing anything but floating about the void seemed wrong.

Eventually, they hit 'port'. There was a dock, not a very big one, and not well made. Corvo wasn't sure what he expected, exactly. Beyond the beach was thick jungle, with small bits cut down to make way for temporary lodging and expedition supplies.

Down the beach were some ruins, mostly oddly piled stones, sectioned off with some people milling about. It didn't look like human influence had spread much farther. Around the small buildings and shelters a wall had been raised, about shoulder height, separating them from the jungle. Probably due to the native plague rats, Corvo figured. Supplies were unloaded from the ship, and Corvo helped carry them into the town of tents and temporary structures. Most of the tents appeared to be made of heavy waxed cotton or canvas, propped up beside each other and labeled with spare bits of wood.

"You'll wanna ask around in there for whatever you need," a heavily scarred sailor informed him, pointing at a small building of wood labeled "administration". Corvo nodded and thanked the man.

Inside, there was a front desk, and a map stretched out on the wall behind it of the continent. A woman sat behind said desk, furiously scribbling on some paperwork. She eventually notices him.

"Can I help you?" She sniffs.

"Corvo Attano."

She flips through her papers, "ah. Single-man expedition, is it? Don't get yourself killed, royal protector. These are dangerous lands."

Before he can reply a voice pipes up behind him.

"Two-person, actually."

Corvo turns, and almost doesn't recognize the man before him, if not for the flat expression. A pale green replaces the endless black of the Outsiders eyes. He walks upon the ground like any mortal, yet his boots hold no dirt or dust. It's a convincing ruse with a glance. Scrutiny betrays too elegant limbs, and inexpressive body language. He rightfully looks like he's playing at humanity, pretending to be something he's not.

"I didn't think you were serious," Corvo says, smartly.

The Outsider gives him a small in-genuine smile like its mandatory. "I never joke."

The lady behind the desk narrows her eyes at them. "I need accurate paperwork gentleman. I would ask you to figure this out quickly, I have things to do."

"Two-person is it," Corvo sighs.

"Name."

"Caius neclen." 

Corvo wonders if that means anything, it certainly sounds foreign, and he doubts it's the god's real name.

They get the paperwork in order, and Corvo the entire time thinks about why the Outsider is bothering with this tedious bit and not just meeting him in the trees. He cannot find a reason, in the end.

The two are shown to their bunks, located in a tent full of them. The Outsider's distaste is palatable. Corvo sighs for the millionth time that day.

"Why are you here?"

"I did say I would meet you here, and I keep my word."

"And now you have to play at human," Corvo takes the bottom bunk out of spite, throwing it bags down under it.

"Yes, but only until the morning," the pointed look he shoots Corvo proves the action was not missed.

Regardless, the bunk is climbed, and even now the Outsider is unnaturally graceful. Corvo, who cannot be bothered to properly process his situation yet, falls asleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tea and travel.

The Outsider was up long before Corvo, but he's fairly sure the other doesn't sleep. He found the other sitting in the mess tent with a cup of warm tea, still full.

"Don't order things you wont drink, I'll have to pay for it," Corvo sat beside him.

The Outsider doesn't reply, idly watching the patterns of rising steam. Corvo watches him for a moment, before getting up to get his own breakfast. Oatmeal and bread today, apparently. Back at the table, Corvo tucks in, silence fitting him just fine.

"The tower can afford it."

At Corvo's look, the other gestures to the cup in front of him. "Tea."

"I know that. I meant you're wasting tea leaves."

"The cook said I couldn't leave until I ate something, saying I was too thin. I managed to work her down to tea," he frowns at it, the most expressive he'd had ever seen from the man. "And now I don't know what to do with it."

"She's not wrong," Corvo takes the tea. It's bitter and sticks in his mouth without sugar or milk.

The frown gets redirected at him momentarily before it smooths back to blank. "Lack of nutrition has nothing to do with it."

Corvo returns to his food.

-0-

Once the settlement is out of sight, Corvo notices the Outsider doesn't cast a shadow. A few moments later he notices blades of grass don't so much as bend under his weight as they do move out of his way. He can't quiet convince himself the timing is coincidental.

They walk in silence, if you don't count the horrid screeching and menacing rumbles of the various animals Corvo's been trying his best not to think about. Any of the abominations that pass within view pay them no heed. Corvo can feel his stress levels clocking out, his muscles burning with nervous tension. Why had he agreed to this again? He had no idea. If whatever this was about - Corvo knew asking would get him nowhere - was bad enough for the Outsider to ask for help, then proceed to actually accompany him, morally, he had little choice in the matter.

Still, the man couldn't help but long for the little luxuries he'd grown used to. Proper bathing, mostly. He can deal with bunks and sleeping rolls. They walk on, Corvo climbing up any rock in their path, while the other simply appears at the top, the bastard.

"What are we looking for, exactly?" Corvo finally thinks to ask, as he dusts dirt off his hands. "And how far?"

The Outsider glances at him, and Corvo notices his eyes are black once more. He'd also gave up on walking entirely at some point while Corvo was distracted, he wryly notes. The god makes an odd picture, floating along the jungle floor. "We have a long journey yet. No harm will come to you."

A spark of annoyance flares up. After being dragged all the way here, Corvo thinks he deserves a little explanation, and says as much.

The other nods, drifting lazily beside him. "Ask your questions, then."

"Where are we going?"

He thinks for a moment. "We will find it in the desert. Underground, I believe."

He's not sure?

"What is it?"

Silence. Corvo looks over. The Outsider is staring unseeingly off into the trees, hands in his lap, and sitting on nothing. "I do not know."

Corvo blinks at him. He doesn't know? How is that possible? He's starting to get a bad feeling about all of this.

"It's alive," he continues. "I can tell that much. And old. Very old, more so than myself."

Corvo blinks again, stunned. He'd always thought of the Outsider as some eternal entity. A constant, despite how human he looked. In hindsight, he supposes, nothing is forever. The void takes everything, in the end. Corvo forgets whatever questions he had left. 

-0-

It's with a relieved sigh Corvo puts down his bags and makes camp. With the Outsiders assurance that a fire is perfectly safe, Corvo goes about roasting a few small lizards he managed to catch. Might as well save rations if he can.

The next morning he's surprised to find himself fairly well rested once again. Going two nights in a row without falling prey to nightmares is rare. He will happily take whatever small blessings he can get.

"Hey wait, why can't you carry any of these?" Corvo gestures to the bags piles up on his back once they're on the figurative road again.

He's given a look, and the Outsider outstretches a hand as if the take one. Corvo happily complies, dropping the heaviest into the offered hand. Only to watch it fall right through and thump to the ground.

"They're your supplies," he adds, helpfully.

Corvo thinks he's starting to get why he's needed here. "How did you get on the bed before?" He asks.

"I can float, my dear," and he almost sounds admonishing.

"And the tea?"

"Was brought to me."

Apparently this whole trip would consist of the Outsider proving wrong the assumptions Corvo hadn't even realized he'd made. He wasn't sure he had the mental energy for this.

Through the tree tops and his messy hair, Corvo sees the flick of a serpentine tail, swimming through the sky as though it was water. He sighs, resigned.

They reach the desert, eventually. The whole journey feels a lot longer than Corvo thinks it logically should. He was sure the continent wasn't this big, according to every map he'd ever seen.

"We're getting close," the Outsider mentions ominously, watching creatures scampering about in the sand far off in the distance.

Corvo eyes the hole, about the size of a skiff, in the sand next to him. "Yeah."

He crouches to get a look at the depth. Not bad, a few meters at most. He drops down, immediately filling his boots with sand. Lovely.

The cave was surprisingly spacious inside, with a tunnel leading further in. The Outsider appears beside him in a swarm of ash. Together, they walk on until they hit a wall. The light from the entrance just enough to see basic details.

"This is the place? It looks like a dead end," Corvo says, watching the other wryly.

"No. There is a doorway here."

"Can you open it?"

The Outsider considers the stone. Etched into it are strange geometrical lines, sand filling most of the crevices, although it's hard to see in the dim light. 

"Would you brush away this buildup here, my dear?" He backs up for Corvo to see. What's visible of the patterns seem to converge on this point.

Corvo pushes down the urge to make a comment on how atrociously undignified it would be for the god to do himself. He likes to think he knows better sometimes. Corvo breaks away the clinging sand. Underneath is an indent in the wall, big enough to fit a ball in. It doesn't seem particularly helpful.

"Looks like it needs a key," Corvo starts, "can't you just..."

With a head tilt, the god disperses in a cloud of black dust, only to reappear in the same spot, looking at Corvo pointedly. "I cannot."

"I was going to say find the key."

"Omnipresence is not the same as omnipotence — there is no knowledge of this place. Like tearing a piece out of a map, it's simply not there. I don't know where the key is, if it even still exists." He flicks a hand dismissively.

"Do not tell me we've come all this way to get stuck at the front door."

"Of course not. Come here." The Outsider beckons him. "Hold out your hand, the marked one." He does, and the other holds his own over it. It's cold he feels. No brush of soft, pale skin, only a vague sense of cold emptiness, not unlike the void. It feels like he's about to fall over a cliffs edge at any moment. Instead, and much less dramatically, his mark begins to glow.

Corvo feels a pull, the void magic urging him beyond the door. He wonders if this is how the Outsider feels as he presses a palm to the circular indent. A ripple of gold light surges through the etchings, lighting up the space for a brief moment before the wall begins to move, sliding upward with a shower of sand. Corvo ducks under it, and presses forward into the dark. Dark vision doesn't reveal much, mostly broken stone slabs, and another door further up, characterized by the seam down the middle. A small show of power opens that one, too.

The cavern opens into a massive chamber of flat stone and volcanic rock. There looks to be multiple floors both up, and when looking down the large chasms. An eerie blue lights up along the stones, coming from an unknown source. In the centre space, items lay scattered around. Odd chairs, and many black boxes are overturned, cables running from where they came, and across the floor. Corvo can't make heads of tails of it, even upon closer inspection.

He watches the Outsider flit around, disappearing only to reappear on the other side of the room, poking around at a new pile of junk. Not that he could actually move anything.

"Corvo, dear, get this for me?" He asks, not even bothering to turn. Corvo finds the pet name starting to grate.

He goes anyway with a frown, and picks up what the Outsider was pointing to. A light, thin bit of metal with hinges on one side. He pulls it open, and sees black, cracked glass. On the other side, a smooth material, and a cluster of buttons full of unknown purposes. The Outsider floats over his shoulder the entire time, scrutinizing.

"I take it you don't know what any of this is?" He asks, dryly.

"It looks like a device that harnesses magic, yet it has no way to do so. Fascinating," He mumbles, moving to look over Corvo's other shoulder. "There are others exactly like this, it must have worked," Corvo tunes out the following rant about the glass covering, and places the object on a box, where the other can still see it.

"Are we here for this, then? A bunch of broken ancient artifacts?" He asks, worried that what he thought was the Outsiders unease was really just a repressed fanboy. He wouldn't even be able to call himself surprised.

At his words, the other clears his throat, and stands up properly from where he was hunched over the object. "I would think not," his feet reach the ground, glamour sliding into place. It's strange, seeing him like this. He looks normal, like any young man you might see on the street. The weight he carries however, the importance and wisdom tell another story altogether.

He looks up, then, and Corvo follows his line of sight, to a pedestal beyond a grand gate, and wonders how he'd missed that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas!

**Author's Note:**

> First thing I've ever posted here. A little nervous, I'm not much of a writer. Hope your enjoyed anyway, and thank you for reading :)
> 
> Sorry for any mistakes!


End file.
